...I'm tired.
XIII
"Are you certain this will not injure Tomura Shigaraki?" Kurogiri asked.
"Nah, it'll only be a couple meters," Dabi said, waving off Kurogiri's concern.
"Look, see, we can put a mat under him," Toga said.
Kurogiri didn't say anything to that, so Dabi figured that meant agreement, and Toga went to get a mat.
The three of them were in an empty room located exactly above the room officially designated as Shigaraki's.
Kurogiri was the one to come up with the idea of using the apartment above theirs for the prank, and had made whatever arrangements needed to make it possible.
Dabi wasn't sure exactly what the deal was with the small apartment building. It had one apartment per floor and the League only used the ground floor, so it seemed that the building wasn't empty, but Dabi had never seen anyone else around. The big boss had been the one to give them the apartment, however, so Dabi had assumed it was safe.
Whatever the situation was, Kurogiri had somehow gotten use of the apartment above theirs.
The floor plan was the same, so it was basically a cleared-out version of their apartment.
Whoever had been using it apparently had no use for this particular room, since it had been covered in dust. The three of them had left it as it was—dust and spider webs and all.
Toga came back in with the mat and carefully positioned it before stepping back.
Dabi glanced toward Kurogiri without turning his head. "He asleep?"
Kurogiri's mist overtook the right side of his suit as he used his quirk.
"Yes," he said after a few seconds, returning to his original form.
"Good," Dabi said and smirked. "Let's get this started."
Toga clapped her hands.
A second later, the three of them were on the fire escape outside the window.
Within the room, one of Kurogiri's portals formed in midair above the mat, dropping Shigaraki to the floor.
Dabi nearly snorted when one of Shigaraki's hands disintegrated the mat.
Shigaraki sat up and looked around the room in confusion.
It was too bad Shigaraki's expressions were hard to see clearly in the dark, but at least he didn't have one of those stupid hands on his face right now. Plus, the widening of his eyes was only emphasized by the darkness of the room.
Right next to Dabi—their heads nearly touching as they peered through the window—Toga covered her mouth with both hands to muffle her laugher.
Shigaraki wandered around the empty room, his movements gradually becoming more jerky and abrupt.
If the three of them had guessed right, he would assume it was his room, and that something strange had happened.
Shigaraki tried the light switch—the floor's electricity was off—flicking it on and off several times. He abruptly jerked the door open, shouting, "Kurogiri?!" and ran into the hallway and out of sight.
"Dabi, did you see that?" Toga whispered, nudging his shoulder. "He disintegrated the doorknob," she said with a giggle.
Squinting a bit, Dabi did see part of a doorknob lying on the floor—a fifth finger must've brushed against it briefly. "Yeah," he said. "Come on." He nodded toward the far window.
He started walking across the metal slats that spanned the width of the building, trying not to make much noise. They needed to go slowly so there'd be less chance of him hearing them, but they were going to miss his first reaction to the living room.
And then one of Kurogiri's portals formed right in front of Dabi. Well, that would make it easier.
He stepped into the portal, and stepped out in front of the other window. He moved over a little to allow room for Toga and Kurogiri, and looked in from the edge of the window.
Shigaraki's face was more noticeably distressed now, his eyes wide and head jerking from side to side as he took in the empty living room. No couch or television monitor or coffee table or various knickknacks Kurogiri had brought in for atmosphere—just a large, devoid space.
"Kurogiri? Mr. Compress?" Shigaraki asked. His voice echoed slightly. "Toga? This isn't funny."
Actually, it really was. And it was about to get funnier.
Dabi reached into the pocket of his trench coat, taking out one wood pellet. "Duck," he whispered to the others—he couldn't have Shigaraki seeing their silhouettes in the window. Gripping the pellet in his hand, he waited until it grew hot, and then ignited it with a fist-sized blue flame. The coolest he could muster—which, when it came to fire, was still a few hundred degrees.
Concentrating on keeping it the right shape, he tossed it into the air and waved it through the open window.
"Dabi?" Shigaraki asked.
As long as an object, like the pellet, was infused with his flames, he found he could move it. However, the pellet wouldn't last long, and the flame would go out once it ran out of fuel.
He could feel a connection with his fire, even from a distance, and when he pushed with his hand, it was like the flame was still brushing against his fingers.
It was too bad he hadn't figured this stuff out years ago. He'd been too certain of what his quirk was capable of to experiment to this extent.
He waved his hand around, pulling and pushing at the small flame to make sure Shigaraki could tell it was floating in midair.
He directed it around the edges of the room, not wanting Shigaraki to feel the heat. Which wasn't hard, since Shigaraki did all he could to stay away from it now that he knew Dabi wasn't attached.
Another reason Dabi had the flame slowly circle the room was to shed some light on the 'decorations' on the walls.
That was Toga's part in their prank. She'd had fun covering the living room walls with blood. Since she was no stranger to crime scenes, she had recreated blood patterns. From knife spatter to bloody handprints to stains on the floor. Despite first claiming it to be a waste of good blood, she'd seemed pretty manic as she'd danced around laughing. Dabi hadn't stuck around. Although he had seen the final results when they'd come upstairs about an hour ago.
Dabi needed to focus on controlling his flame, so he couldn't pay attention to Shigaraki's reactions, but he could feel Toga's shoulders shaking in silent laughter, so it must've been good.
He dug out a second pellet and repeated the process, adding another little blue flame to the mix before the first burned out. He directed it with his other hand.
Shigaraki shrieked.
Dabi blinked, and Kurogiri was in the room beside Shigaraki, the latter sitting on the floor with his hands at his neck.
"Tomura Shigaraki, you are safe."
Shigaraki started babbling about ghosts and the members of the League and hero raids.
"None of this is real," Kurogiri said. "I apologize. I did not foresee this prank effecting you so."
The wide-eyed look slowly morphed to confusion, and then anger.
"Kurogiri, you—!"
Shigaraki's hand darted out, and appeared harmlessly in another part of the room.
"I am sorry, Tomura Shigaraki," Kurogiri said again.
"Who else was involved in this?!" Shigaraki demanded. "I'll kill them!"
"I take full responsibility," Kurogiri said.
"That's not what I asked—tell me who else is here!"
Dabi felt Toga tapping his shoulder, and he turned to see her pointing behind them, at one of Kurogiri's portals.
To Dabi's surprise, the portal brought them back to the living room of their normal apartment. He'd almost expected to end up halfway across the country—Shigaraki'd seemed pretty upset.
He was uncertain about whether he should leave the apartment and lay low for a few days, or if Kurogiri'd had a reason to bring them here specifically. Dabi decided to wait for Kurogiri to tell them something.
He chose to lean against the wall so it would be easier to fight or to run, but Toga chose the couch. She frowned as she fiddled with a knife in her lap, seeming unusually melancholy.
It was true the three of them hadn't thought through any consequences for the prank. Perhaps they had gone a little too far.
He had no idea what Kurogiri was saying to Shigaraki a floor above them, but objects started disappearing through small portals.
After an unknown amount of time, a large portal formed within the room.
Shigaraki stepped out, a severed hand back on his face, and Dabi and Toga tensed.
"Don't you dare pull something like that again—or I'll ground your atoms into the floor."
Then Shigaraki raised his arms in an open, friendly gesture. "But I can be reasonable. Let's go back to the last save point and try this again."
Shigaraki then gave each of them a hard look. "You're going to put on that show for all the other members of the League. And I'm going to be in on it and watch each one."
Over the next several nights, they would perform the prank over and over. It had quickly become more of a chore than something fun, and Dabi was starting to feel the effects of lack of sleep. Plus, it also cut into his meeting times, and made it harder to investigate the illegal drugs.
However, Shigaraki loved every moment, wearing a toothy grin as other members of the League ended up just as scared as he'd been.
Shigaraki had added his own little touches to the haunted apartment, adding some partially decayed duplicate furniture and improving on the aged look, making it seem as though the apartment was stuck in a time long past.
He also had an easy way of making the other rooms look dusty.
Spinner's turn had been fun. He'd actually climbed the living room wall and huddled in the middle of the ceiling.
In response, Dabi had manipulated one of his flames to hover closer to the lizard and form a face, causing Spinner to yell and drop to the floor.
It had been going well with Magne, until she activated her quirk and caused all of them to bang heads with Toga. She had then went over to the window and put her hands on her hips, giving them a disappointed talk. None of them were sure how to react to that.
Toga had disagreed with making Twice go through it, and, since she didn't have an active roll, was able to catch up on sleep rather than watch Twice zigzagging around the living room as he tried to run in two different directions. He seemed to take it hard, but when it was over, he said he'd loved it.
And also that he never wanted to do it again.
Mr. Compress's turn was... interesting...
"Ah, bravo, Dabi. A unique and rather ingenious way to use your quirk! And I believe the beautiful wall art is Toga's doing—very authentic. And of course, Shigaraki's rotting furniture gives a nice atmosphere."
Mr. Compress had seemed to know from the very beginning. Even praising Kurogiri for starting the show with a bang. However, everyone swore they hadn't warned him, and he claimed he just had a good eye for illusion. He also said it had been very entertaining, and that he would like to experience any future shows they might put on.
After everyone had taken a turn, the League gained full use of the second apartment. With how often random League members were wanting to spend the night, the extra space was needed.
Author's Note:
Happy Halloween. Although it's technically still September in-fic, I think.
Sorry, there wasn't an opportunity for Dabi to deny being a todoroki in this chapter.
I wrote the chapter from Dabi's pov because I realized Shigaraki's pov would probably be kinda dark and serious. Hopefully having the observer pov makes it funnier, or at least somewhat interesting.
Not sure when I'll have the next chapter written. After three chapters back-to-back, I might take a little break.